Anime in the UK
LJM
channel), mainly because I'm involved in a design community full of late
teens/early twenty-somethings who are very inspired by this genre, and I
want to get a feel for what it's all about -- beyond the obvious visual
styling, that is.
It just surprises me that I've not been exposed to much Anime in the
past, and I wonder whether mainstream UK TV has largely ignored it, or
I've just been oblivious to it?
--
LJM -_-*,,|,
Sofa - Spud
It's extraordinarily popular with my daughter and her friends both
girls and lads the recent magazine buy each week I've seen around here
Ghost in the shell, blood; Last Vampire - Studio Ghibli stuff. There
is a ton of it on the net .
I was a little concerned at first when I saw it as it straight away
reminded me of the japanese hentai sex cartoons but this is something
quite different and I'm delighted he large group of kids have
something interesting to follow.
LJM
>
> It's extraordinarily popular with my daughter and her friends both
> girls and lads the recent magazine buy each week I've seen around here
> Ghost in the shell, blood; Last Vampire - Studio Ghibli stuff. There
> is a ton of it on the net .
>
> I was a little concerned at first when I saw it as it straight away
> reminded me of the japanese hentai sex cartoons but this is something
> quite different and I'm delighted he large group of kids have
> something interesting to follow.
I was just gonna ask about that when you mentioned your daughter was
reading it. Certainly all the Anime shows I've seen on GONG (Ikki
Tousen, Gun Frontier, etc.) ain't for kids (lots of sexual imagery and
violence), and I'm told the Manga they're derived from are even more
extreme.
--
LJM -_-*,,|,
Lister
wrote:
I've been an anime follower for quite some years now. Most of it is
more grown up, though there are some things for younger generations (I
prefer Akira though:)
LJM
Where do you get your fix? Renting/buying DVDs? Or are the cartoons
broadcast on Sky or something? I haven't subscribed since analogue
vanished because I'm not into football, I got bored with The Simpsons
long ago, and for some years I've been prepared to download any American
shows exclusive to Sky.
--
LJM -_-*,,|,
Bruce Stewart
It was really big a few years ago, but its profile seemed to have faded
recently.
What would have been nice though, if Manga UK had re-released all their
previous VHS releases on DVD. They did this for some of them, but not for
some stuff you would have expected like (the full series of) Project A-Ko,
the Heroic Legend of Arislan and The Legend of the 4 Kings.
Bruce S.
--
Replace the by by blueyonder
Lister
I *Think* there is a magazine called "Anime UK", edited by one Helen
Mcarthy, that may be some time ago now though. If you can track it
down, let me know.
LJM
Yeah...DVD is much better suited to Anime than VHS I guess because some
people like it dubbed, while others prefer the original Japanese audio
with subtitles -- and at least the DVD format can provide both options.
I'm finding I prefer the latter myself. It seems so much more
atmospheric and powerful, and those American voice-overs often
over-kiddify the more adult oriented stuff which is a little unsettling.
I'm just downloading a DivX rip of Akira. I'm /so/ behind. (،_،)
--
LJM -_-*,,|,
LJM
> In <slrnf2jl1c.1e...@cubist.lan>, LJM
> showed 13 of the Studio Ghibli films. Many of them have been shown on
> Channel 4 a while later too. I'm just waiting for them to show Ocean
> Waves (1993) and My Neighbours the Yamadas (1999), then I've got the
> full set!
Excellent! I really have to pay more attention to Film Four now it's
available on Freeview.
I'm getting the impression from replies that Anime films get more
exposure in the UK than Anime TV series. Not sure how fair a statement
that is.
--
LJM -_-*,,|,
Paul Evans
"LJM" <subtex...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:slrnf2jl1c.1e...@cubist.lan...
It is somewhat annoying.
CNX seemed promising at the time in that they showed Outlaw Star and Cowboy
Bebop in the evenings before the channel eventually morphed into Toonami,
and now I have to trawl the net looking for decent anime, usually stuff that
has been fansubbed (i.e. One Piece, Chobits) and stuff that isn't on general
release over here. Apparently Rapture used to show some anime too, but it's
never been available on cable, and the stopped their web stream ages ago.
Other anime series like Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex I have on
DVD, and I can usually rely on my mate who has an extensive anime DVD
collection to let me borrow the rest! ;-)
I see that Joost is invite-only though and I don't know anyone who has
access to it to see if it's worth the hassle or not though. What sort of
anime do they show on there?
Paul.
LJM
Joost is still in beta, hence its userbase being a bit of a member's
only club right now...but due to the way P2PTV works (picture quality is
better if more people are using it) the powers that be are slowly
increasing the numbers. If you'd like an invite, I'll pass you one as
soon as I have some available. For some reason, everybody I've met
while reporting bugs has been given invites to hand out this week...but
not me yet...so hopefully it'll be my turn soon.
As for the Anime on Joost...it's all available on Gong -- the Anime
channel. Unfortunately, it's very limited right now because most
distributors will only provide a handful of shows during the beta
period, but there's still a good few hours of programming to choose from
until it goes live.
Shows on Gong right now (4 VOD episodes of each) are:
Ikki Tousen
Gun Frontier
Saiyuki - Paradise Raiders
The Slayers
Cosmo Warrior Zero
And here are some Joost screenshots I took earlier (including some Anime
content):
http://tinyurl.com/yojzlp
http://tinyurl.com/2xebf2
http://tinyurl.com/yo4w78
http://tinyurl.com/2cc8aw
http://tinyurl.com/2726yq
http://tinyurl.com/2ajtzu
And crap, it's nearly 9:15...I shoulda been out of here ages ago. =D
--
LJM -_-*,,|,
Paul Evans
> One may as well begin with Paul's letter to uk.media.tv.misc...
>
> Joost is still in beta, hence its userbase being a bit of a member's
> only club right now...but due to the way P2PTV works (picture quality is
> better if more people are using it) the powers that be are slowly
> increasing the numbers. If you'd like an invite, I'll pass you one as
> soon as I have some available. For some reason, everybody I've met
> while reporting bugs has been given invites to hand out this week...but
> not me yet...so hopefully it'll be my turn soon.
>
That would be good, yeah. I like to play around with new things and I've got
a 10Mb internet connection doing very little at the moment!
My email address is valid.
> As for the Anime on Joost...it's all available on Gong -- the Anime
> channel. Unfortunately, it's very limited right now because most
> distributors will only provide a handful of shows during the beta
> period, but there's still a good few hours of programming to choose from
> until it goes live.
>
> Shows on Gong right now (4 VOD episodes of each) are:
>
> Ikki Tousen
> Gun Frontier
> Saiyuki - Paradise Raiders
> The Slayers
> Cosmo Warrior Zero
>
I haven't seen any of those, so it will all be new stuff to me. Presumably
they're dubbed in English, or do they have the original Japanese audio with
English subtitles? I tend to go for Japanese audio/English subtitles where I
can, but usually shows on TV are shown with English voice acting.
> And here are some Joost screenshots I took earlier (including some Anime
> content):
>
> http://tinyurl.com/yojzlp
> http://tinyurl.com/2xebf2
> http://tinyurl.com/yo4w78
> http://tinyurl.com/2cc8aw
> http://tinyurl.com/2726yq
> http://tinyurl.com/2ajtzu
>
That looks interesting. I see the video quality seems to be at a similar
level to TVUPlayer's "high quality" channels, but TVUPlayer seems to suffer
from video and audio stuttering for the first couple of minutes after a
channel's selected.
The layout on Joost seems very professional as well. Can the on-screen
windows be hidden when you're watching a programme?
> And crap, it's nearly 9:15...I shoulda been out of here ages ago. =D
I remember the days when I used to be out on a Saturday night... (feeling
old now) :-(
Paul.
Paul Hyett
>I've recently been watching a lot of Anime shows on GONG (a Joost
>channel)
BTW, was the thread title supposed to be a play on the title of the Sex
Pistols first UK single?
--
Paul 'Charts Fan' Hyett
LJM
>>I've recently been watching a lot of Anime shows on GONG (a Joost
>>channel)
>
> BTW, was the thread title supposed to be a play on the title of the Sex
> Pistols first UK single?
No, but it did cross my mind afterwards. =D
--
LJM -_-*,,|,
LJM
>
> "LJM" <subtex...@gmail.com> wrote in message
> news:slrnf2ks6b.2s...@cubist.lan...
>> One may as well begin with Paul's letter to uk.media.tv.misc...
>>
>> Joost is still in beta, hence its userbase being a bit of a member's
>> only club right now...but due to the way P2PTV works (picture quality is
>> better if more people are using it) the powers that be are slowly
>> increasing the numbers. If you'd like an invite, I'll pass you one as
>> soon as I have some available. For some reason, everybody I've met
>> while reporting bugs has been given invites to hand out this week...but
>> not me yet...so hopefully it'll be my turn soon.
>>
> That would be good, yeah. I like to play around with new things and I've got
> a 10Mb internet connection doing very little at the moment!
>
> My email address is valid.
Still don't have any to hand out, but when I get some you'll be first in
line. =)
>> Shows on Gong right now (4 VOD episodes of each) are:
>>
>> Ikki Tousen
>> Gun Frontier
>> Saiyuki - Paradise Raiders
>> The Slayers
>> Cosmo Warrior Zero
>>
> I haven't seen any of those, so it will all be new stuff to me. Presumably
> they're dubbed in English, or do they have the original Japanese audio with
> English subtitles? I tend to go for Japanese audio/English subtitles where I
> can, but usually shows on TV are shown with English voice acting.
You're right: They're dubbed in English. I prefer the Japanese
audio/English subtitles too...which is one reason I ended up grabbing
the whole Ikki Tousen season from isohunt.
>> And here are some Joost screenshots I took earlier (including some Anime
>> content):
>>
>> http://tinyurl.com/yojzlp
>> http://tinyurl.com/2xebf2
>> http://tinyurl.com/yo4w78
>> http://tinyurl.com/2cc8aw
>> http://tinyurl.com/2726yq
>> http://tinyurl.com/2ajtzu
>>
>
> That looks interesting. I see the video quality seems to be at a similar
> level to TVUPlayer's "high quality" channels, but TVUPlayer seems to suffer
> from video and audio stuttering for the first couple of minutes after a
> channel's selected.
When Joost runs as it should, playback is stutter and error free, and
quality is outstanding. Picture quality is deliberately variable
though, and depends on how many clients Joost manages to connect to --
and how fast you can download from them collectively. Downloading is
all done behind the scenes (the client doesn't share this information)
and seems to work quite well for most people. Some people have had
seriously viewing problems (affecting quality) this past week though,
but I think you have to grin and bear it while the product is still in
beta Fortunately, just delaying my viewing for half an hour is usually
enough to resolve any problems.
> The layout on Joost seems very professional as well.
It's *very* self-contained and point and click orientated. IMO, it's
pretty clear that the long term plan is to sell Joost set-top boxes.
> Can the on-screen
> windows be hidden when you're watching a programme?
Oh yeah. You can either press escape or they disappear after a few
seconds.
>> And crap, it's nearly 9:15...I shoulda been out of here ages ago. =D
>
> I remember the days when I used to be out on a Saturday night... (feeling
> old now) :-(
LOL. =)
--
LJM -_-*,,|,
neil h
> One may as well begin with Paul's letter to uk.media.tv.misc...
>> "LJM" <subtex...@gmail.com> wrote in message
>> news:slrnf2ks6b.2s...@cubist.lan...
>>> One may as well begin with Paul's letter to uk.media.tv.misc...
>>>
>>> Joost is still in beta, hence its userbase being a bit of a member's
>>> only club right now...but due to the way P2PTV works (picture quality is
>>> better if more people are using it) the powers that be are slowly
>>> increasing the numbers. If you'd like an invite, I'll pass you one as
>>> soon as I have some available. For some reason, everybody I've met
>>> while reporting bugs has been given invites to hand out this week...but
>>> not me yet...so hopefully it'll be my turn soon.
>>>
>> That would be good, yeah. I like to play around with new things and I've got
>> a 10Mb internet connection doing very little at the moment!
>>
>> My email address is valid.
>
> Still don't have any to hand out, but when I get some you'll be first in
> line. =)
~waves hopefully~
Can I be second in line, please and thank you Mr LJM?
--
neil h.
Google Brights
LJM
Of course neil. No problem at all. =)
--
LJM -_-*,,|,
Paul Evans
> One may as well begin with Paul's letter to uk.media.tv.misc...
>> I haven't seen any of those, so it will all be new stuff to me.
>> Presumably
>> they're dubbed in English, or do they have the original Japanese audio
>> with
>> English subtitles? I tend to go for Japanese audio/English subtitles
>> where I
>> can, but usually shows on TV are shown with English voice acting.
>
> You're right: They're dubbed in English. I prefer the Japanese
> audio/English subtitles too...which is one reason I ended up grabbing
> the whole Ikki Tousen season from isohunt.
>
Yep. One of the reasons why I prefer the Japanese audio is because I get a
better sense of the intended 'atmosphere' in the film/episode, whereas
occasionally, dubbed versions tend to carry off a different feeling because
dialogue is spoken where it shouldn't be.
Also, the original dialogue tends to reflect on taboos and aspects of
Japanese culture (especially in One Piece and Chobits), but can be
completely supplanted with "western" culture in the dubbed versions.
Luckily, Chobits gets off lightly (the humour is still very much a
reflection on Japanese culture and life), but One Piece is a shocking mess,
made worse by the fact that 4Kids bought the rights to what was essentially
an adult show (and a series that's still running in Japan - 233 episodes and
counting), and somehow managed to turn it into some preteen cartoon, without
the blood, weapons (well, there are /some/ weapons in there, but the less
said about those, the better), deaths, humour and in some cases, with three
or four original episodes sliced up, with many parts removed, and the rest
haphazardly stuck together and then stretched out to fill twenty minutes
(with some scenes actually repeating themselves!), even though none of the
survivng scenes actually make any sense.
The good news is that 4Kids are apparently giving up on screwing up any new
episodes (it's probably got to the stage now where they simply can't rewrite
the dialogue and remove all evidence of blood, death and alcohol any longer
so they've simply stopped producing new episodes), but the bad news is that
they still hold the licence until 2008(?), so in the meantime, I'm pretty
much sticking with the fansubbed version.
>
> When Joost runs as it should, playback is stutter and error free, and
> quality is outstanding. Picture quality is deliberately variable
> though, and depends on how many clients Joost manages to connect to --
> and how fast you can download from them collectively. Downloading is
> all done behind the scenes (the client doesn't share this information)
> and seems to work quite well for most people. Some people have had
> seriously viewing problems (affecting quality) this past week though,
> but I think you have to grin and bear it while the product is still in
> beta Fortunately, just delaying my viewing for half an hour is usually
> enough to resolve any problems.
>
>> The layout on Joost seems very professional as well.
>
> It's *very* self-contained and point and click orientated. IMO, it's
> pretty clear that the long term plan is to sell Joost set-top boxes.
>
>> Can the on-screen
>> windows be hidden when you're watching a programme?
>
> Oh yeah. You can either press escape or they disappear after a few
> seconds.
>
Can't wait to try it out! (Eventually...)
Paul.
LJM
My problem with the American dubbed episodes of Ikki Tousen is sort of
similar, in that they've made it 'feel' like a preteen cartoon due to
the voices they've chosen and some sound effects they've replaced. That
surely sits very awkwardly with anybody fooled into thinking it's a kids
cartoon because visually, it's *very* sexual (sexist too actually) and
violent. It's clearly aimed at mid-to-late teenagers and early
twenty-somethings, which makes the audio all the more inappropriate.
> The good news is that 4Kids are apparently giving up on screwing up any new
> episodes (it's probably got to the stage now where they simply can't rewrite
> the dialogue and remove all evidence of blood, death and alcohol any longer
> so they've simply stopped producing new episodes), but the bad news is that
> they still hold the licence until 2008(?), so in the meantime, I'm pretty
> much sticking with the fansubbed version.
>
>>
>> When Joost runs as it should, playback is stutter and error free, and
>> quality is outstanding. Picture quality is deliberately variable
>> though, and depends on how many clients Joost manages to connect to --
>> and how fast you can download from them collectively. Downloading is
>> all done behind the scenes (the client doesn't share this information)
>> and seems to work quite well for most people. Some people have had
>> seriously viewing problems (affecting quality) this past week though,
>> but I think you have to grin and bear it while the product is still in
>> beta Fortunately, just delaying my viewing for half an hour is usually
>> enough to resolve any problems.
>>
>>> The layout on Joost seems very professional as well.
>>
>> It's *very* self-contained and point and click orientated. IMO, it's
>> pretty clear that the long term plan is to sell Joost set-top boxes.
>>
>>> Can the on-screen
>>> windows be hidden when you're watching a programme?
>>
>> Oh yeah. You can either press escape or they disappear after a few
>> seconds.
>>
> Can't wait to try it out! (Eventually...)
Still no invites...but I'm occasionally chatting with people on Joost
who have some spare. I'm reluctant to give out email addresses without
permission, but if you're OK with it...I'll get somebody else to invite
you if the possibility arises again.
--
LJM -_-*,,|,